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28 November 2019

MailOnline’s “I Love Brexit” Glastonbury source is… the reporter behind the story

By Media Mole

The Mail’s done some digging at Glastonbury, finding one reveller wearing an unlikely “I Heart Brexit” t-shirt and following him around to judge the crowd’s reactions.

That’s what it says in its coverage, anyway, with the headline:

“Brave soul dons ‘I Love Brexit’ T-shirt in the heart of liberal Glastonbury Festival… and is amazed that not ALL the comments he got were abusive”

And explaining its story…

“To test the anti-Brexit sentiment among the crowds, one festival-goer wore an ‘I Love Brexit’ t-shirt and recorded the reaction – which ranged from friendly laughs to icy stares and outright hostility.”

But as your mole began to read the article, it became a little clearer who this bold young maverick actually was. The anonymous “festival-goer” soon became “our man” in one description, followed by “the reporter and his colleague”, and then “our reporter” and lastly “the reporter”. And in a picture caption: “MailOnline sent a man wearing an ‘I love Brexit’ shirt to the famously liberal Glastonbury Festival to gauge the reaction of the crowd”.

Amazing story-telling, there. A report on…oneself. But the funniest thing about this piece to your mole is how meagre the response from festival goers was – clearly the Mail was hoping for its sacrificial lamb to get mobbed by a crowd of liberal remoaners baying for Brexiteer blood, but rather weakly had to conclude:

“Brexit may have divided the country – but at laid-back Glastonbury people were clearly more interested in enjoying the music than talking politics.”

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